I'm a BlackBerry application developer and just recently installed the express version for application testing, etc. After a couple of setup hiccups, everything appears to be working OK (the logs are clean). It should also firstly be noted that I know next to nothing about Exchange, BES's, etc. I'm just learning as I go...So don't make any assumptions about my knowledge

The BlackBerry that I want to test with is currently in BIS mode. How exactly do I now make it connect to the BES? I know that I can connect the device up to the BES machine, and assign a user account to the device, but wouldn't something need to be done by my network provider?

ie. In BIS mode, I imagine that whenever I do something on the BB (ie. make a http request in the browser) this goes over the wireless network to the providers own internet gateway which takes care of handling the request and returning the response.

When I want to connect this device up to a BES, wouldn't I need to call my provider and tell them to redirect requests from my BB to my BES. What kind of information will I need to provide them (eg. BES IP address, anything else?)?. And will they just let me switch back and forward like that?

Well, I did a little bit more searching and yes, found out that I need to contact my provider and tell them to "provision" (correct word?) BES for the BlackBerry. I guess what I'm just unsure about now is the details that I will need to provide them?

Anyway, I called up the provider and they switched over my BB to BES. Connected the blackberry, provisioned, and all good. Checked MDS functionality. All good also.

Funnily enough, I didn't need to tell them any details - I guess my BES communicates over port 3101 to some central server where BES host information gets stored and then the provider also looks up this server when it detects a BB request...Cool architecture. Simplicity = Good.

Anyway, next question

I want to test an application that requires resources on the network the BES is on. In other words, my application makes a number of HTTP requests to //SERVERNAME:8080/myapp where myapp is a servlet running under Tomcat on a machine that is on the same network as the BES. Is getting this to work as simple as forming an HTTP request that looks just like that or is there more complexity to this?